Some thoughts on death of baby Angeliah Duncan…

Wonder how it is that children like Angeliah Duncan die in the child welfare system?

Here is a possible answer.

Dr. John Wright, Director of the Broward County Child Protection Team located within the Sexual Abuse Treatment Center (SATC) sent Angeliah home although upon examination he found injuries to her head. She was killed soon after. This same doctor now demonstrates the thought process, or lack thereof, that takes place in the minds of state-contracted doctors within the child welfare system and that are making decision about our children.
The State of Florida is in the business of “crystal-ball gazing”.

The State of Florida blindly approves and signs off on recommendations made by state contracted doctors regarding vulnerable children, using “hypothetical” analysis. These children are often left or placed in harms way, are lost in foster care systems, and sometimes die.

Dr. John Wright used this “hypothetical” analysis recently in a Broward County court dependency hearing. For hours on end, Dr. Wright hypothesized over the mental state of a woman he had met briefly for a few minutes (length of time stated by doctor himself as twenty minutes; mother counters it was about ten minutes). This hypothesis, or poor attempt at a form of diagnosis in writing, was put in a report that he signed off on and was later signed off on by the State of Florida. Specifically, the report stated the mother suffered from a “mental condition”, never specifying a diagnosis. When Dr. Wright attempted to diagnose the mother during his interrogation seeing no other alternative, he admitted to doing so based on the child’s medical history. On closer examination, the doctor admitted to not having reviewed critical medical documents related to the child that changed drastically his original assumptions on the mother’s reasons for taking actions as she did. The doctor added that he did not have access to these additional critical documents, although he was working closely with the investigators who did have access to them. He added that it was not his job to get those documents. It is important to note that Dr. Wright is a state-contracted “pediatric” doctor, not an adult psychologist or similar.

This unfounded and incomplete report, along with malicious intent on the part of a Broward Sheriff’s Office sexual abuse unit detective and child protection team investigator, led to a traumatic removal of a female child from her home.

A warrantless entry was made in the home of the mother during the very late hours of Friday, July 31, 2009. Court documents presented by Dr. Wright and the Broward Sheriff’s Office were, until recently, the only documents presented to the State Attorney’s office and the court system who jointly signed off on this act.

In spite of the obvious constitutional rights violations and erroneous reports, the 17th judicial circuit court continues to hear this case going into month #6 of this parental nightmare. You, citizen, are funding this by the way.

More “hypothesizing” in an American court room is expected. Additional information to follow…